


Wind

by parka_girl



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 22:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7909369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parka_girl/pseuds/parka_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's ten years since the world ended, Kihyun and Hoseok return to Seoul.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wind

Kihyun stands on the bridge, leaning against the railing. He looks out over the Han River, stretching out winding and clear beneath him and then into the distance. He turns, looking past the abandoned vehicles that dot the bridge and see the river stretching out again, this time behind him. He turns a second time, looking toward the city, toward Seoul. 

It's emptier than the last time Kihyun was here. It was eight years ago, Kihyun thinks and then realizes that's wrong. He sucks in a breath and shuts his eyes. It's been ten years since he was here. Ten years since Seoul was the place he remembered. Ten years since he's lived all the way on the other side of their tiny country. Ten years since the world collapsed. Perhaps there's another name for it, but Kihyun doesn't know it, or chooses not to remember it. 

"Kihyun?" Hoseok's voice cuts through Kihyun's thoughts, reminding him that he's not alone. 

Kihyun opens his eyes, looking over at Hoseok. His boyfriend, his best friend, the one person from his old life who survived. Hoseok's hair is longer now and his face is wrinkled in worry as he watches Kihyun. 

"I'm okay." Kihyun says, adjusting the backpack on his shoulders. 

"We can go back." Hoseok says, walking toward him. 

Kihyun shakes his head. He doesn't want to go back yet. For ten years, since he'd escaped, since he'd found Hoseok, since the world fell, he'd been refusing to return. And now, now that he's 33, he's made himself come back. 

"Let's keep going." Kihyun says, his voice caught by the wind that suddenly rips across the bridge. Kihyun shivers and reaches back until Hoseok's hand finds his own. 

They resume walking across the bridge, weaving around through traffic that will never move again. Kihyun does not look inside the cars, he doesn't want to know what he'll find. He only has the barest of ideas of what happened to Seoul after he left and he has no interest in reliving it. He feels Hoseok's hand tighten around his hand Kihyun is grateful that his boyfriend is here, grateful that he is not alone. 

They stand on the edge of Gangnam, or what was one Gangnam. The buildings remain, but they are nothing like Kihyun's memories of them. He sometimes dreams of neon lights and people, hundreds of people living their lives, unaware that the world will end. These dreams never end well and more often than not, he'll wake up to Hoseok holding him, whispering to him. There are times, too, when he does the same with Hoseok. Kihyun's therapist assures him that the is not alone, the thousands of others survivors have their own nightmares, too. 

They are not the first people to return to Seoul, they won't be the last, either. There are rumors that people have returned to the city to live. Kihyun can understand, a little bit, why. There are memories here, fresh even though so much time has passed. Maybe it's because he hasn't been back in so long, maybe it's because he'd always pretended that things would return to normal. No, he thinks, it's because returning to Seoul is a reminder of everything he'd lost, that they'd lost, he adds, gripping Hoseok's hand a little tighter.

Kihyun lets Hoseok lead him down the exit ramp and toward the crumbling remains of Seoul. He remembers the first time he met Hoseok, he remembers the world the way it used to be. When he was young and everything was shining and bright. He remembers a future he once longed for, a dream he'd achieved, a dream he'd shared with Hoseok. He barely remembers the person he was, the person that Hoseok was, but he remembers the lives they'd had. 

But he also remembers his parents, their friends. The reason they have returned to the city, after all this time. It's an anniversary visit, of a sort. They will go to the studio where they spent most of their lives, the dorms they used to live in. Kihyun is scared of what they'll find, but they have to go back. It's been too long and while none of their friends survived, while there is nothing left of who they once were, both he and Hoseok made a promise to each other. 

Kihyun pulls Hoseok to stop while they try to remember which way to go. Hoseok pulls out a map, consulting it while Kihyun lets go of his boyfriend's hand and steps into the middle of an empty street. He holds his arms out, away from him and turns slowly in a circle, staring up at the sky. It's late summer, autumn will soon be upon them. Kihyun had lost everything, ten years earlier. He'd been on the train when it happened, he still isn't clear what happened, not really. The power had gone out, people had died, and he had been evacuated to Busan. 

He'd never heard from his family or his friends. He assumed, even now, that they were dead. He'd thought Hoseok was dead, too, until the day Kihyun had found him in the hospital, nearly starved to death. He'd walked from Seoul to Busan, eating barely anything and only just surviving. Kihyun had asked, only once, what had happened and Hoseok had told him. 

He'd seen their friends die, he'd gone to find his family, but they, too were dead. And then he'd learned that Busan was where he needed to be if he wanted to live and so he started to walk. What he saw on his travels, Kihyun didn't ask and Hoseok hadn't volunteered. Maybe when they're both eighty and have lived a lifetime together, Hoseok will tell him. Nine years, Kihyun thinks as he stops spinning, staring up at the sky again, is a long time, but it's not a lifetime. 

Kihyun feels Hoseok's hands on him and drops his arms, stepping into his boyfriend's embrace. They'll need to get going soon if they want to find some place to camp before it gets dark. But, Kihyun thinks as he shifts, turning to face Hoseok, not yet. Hoseok kisses him softly, tentatively, like the first they kissed, the day Hoseok was released from the hospital. They have barely been apart since that moment and Kihyun has no interest in changing that. 

He returns the kiss and wraps his arms around his boyfriend, holding onto him. Sometimes he daydreams about what his life might've been, had the world not decided to end. But in the end he cannot imagine it. Sometimes he finds it hard to imagine that things were ever any different. Hoseok's mouth is hot against his as they kiss again and Kihyun curls his fingers against the back of Hoseok's back. They linger like this, the wind from the bridge nothing but a gentle breeze now that they're away from the river. 

Eventually they pull apart and Hoseok's hand finds Kihyun's again. They walk in silence, toward the life they used to know. Kihyun is not ready for what they're going to find, not any more than Hoseok is. But then again, he thinks, he wasn't ready for the world to end, either.


End file.
